The alicorn opened her mouth but her eyes needed more time to adjust to the light. She took a deep breath. A dusty content entered her mouth. She coughed. Her lungs instinctively tried to ventilate again in-between her coughs, letting even more dust enter her throat. Twilight panicked. She raised her head and coughed out whatever she had swallowed. Her lids only made it half way. Her eyes watered and made the world blurry. She found the blinding sun pressing against her face, her skin burning in it’s might.
"Uh..." She groaned.
Her eyes slowly started taking in more of the landscape. It wasn’t really a desert, accept an occasional dry tree trunk here and there. The ground that Twilight had accidentally tasted wasn’t really sand, it felt much thinner under her hooves. It felt almost like old plant life that had molded away. Twilight turned her head. It was like a mirror had been placed behind her, accept a yellow patch of that mane wich revealed itself ahead, blowing in the breeze that somehow did nothing against the burning heat.
"Urgh, tarnation."
The voice had a thick country accent. “Apple Jack?” Twilight addressed the her long time friend.
“Twilight.” Apple Jacks pupils shot a bewildered look her before they wailed around the area. "Twilight. Where are we, and why are you a pony still?”
Twilight looked down at her hooves. Her front ones should be human hands by now. - Such were the nature of going through the magic mirror of Canterlot. - But even if she had been in the human world this eerie landscape would still be alien to anything she expected to see there. Something was horribly wrong.
“I don’t know Apple Jack.” Twilight answered darkly.
“Twilight? Apple Jack?!” The ponies could hear the desperate voice of their unicorn friend further ahead, immediately followed by her ear piercing scream.
“Whaaaaaa!”
Twilight and Apple Jack galloped toward the scream, their hooves sending up dust clouds as they went.
“What is it sugarcube?” Apple Jack asked.
The white unicorn did not answer. Her face was tethered to the ground, her pupils widened in disgust. Apple Jack would come to find herself in no position to argue. “Sweet Celestia! What in the hay is that?!”
Like a patch of water running down a slope, in front of the ponies, a centipede was walking with its thousand feets. Normal centipedes could also be found in the human world, but this one was different, this one was the size of a rope! All three ponies now imagined it walking underneath their coats. Twilight shrugged. “Urgh! Well, this sure doesn't look like Equestria.”
“I DON’T CARE WERE THAT THING COMES FROM AS LONG AS IT STAYS AWAY FROM ME!” The white unicorn roared. She took a few steps back.
There were the sound of wood breaking. The unicorn fell helplessly through the enormous tree trunk that she had unknowingly been standing on. Dust wailed around her as she landed inside it. There then were the sound of sliding things.
It was like the area retracted inwards towards the white unicorn named Rarity, known for her fancy dresses and prone toward dirt. The worms were the size of a filly hooves. Huge cockroaches twitched their claws like they were longing to hug Rarity. Something tickled her hoof right now.
“WHAAAAAAAAAA!!!”
Twilight and Apple Jack heard Raritys scream resonating inside the trunk, making her almost sound like a distorted electric guitar. The hole that Rarity had fallen into exploded into double its size as she rocketed out of it. She frantically heaved herself onto Apple Jacks back while breathing like a scared rabbit. The usually thick coated apple farmer couldn’t believe herself for sympathizing with Rarity.
“Twilight. What is this place?!” She asked desperately.
“I told you. I don't know!” Twilight answered irritatingly.
“Girls?!” The ponies could hear the voice of one of their pegasus friends.
The three ponies made their way toward where they heard the voice. When they arrived they looked horrified at the sight of the bright yellow pony being bathed in muddy water. Its thick surface hissed by the heat which made the air vibrate over it. Underground volcanic activity formed the largest air bubbles that the ponies had ever seen. The light-yellow pegasus pony named Fluttershy had her wings raised as she tried to shake the mud from her feathers. Her desperate eyes met the group as she begged with her squeaking voice.
“Girls! Help me?!” .
“Yehahahahahah!” A happy laughter echoed the eerie air.
Just a bit further away from Fluttershy a pink earth pony jumped happily up and down on the waters surface. A bathing frog appeared to be sticking his head out of it. Whenever a bubble formed over him it caused his head to grow ten times in size.
“Come on girls. This is fun!” The happy voice, belonging to Pinkie Pie, spouted.
“Waaaaaaaah!” A raspy scream split the air. A rainbow blur came falling down from the barren tree crown from above. The blue pegasus pony named Rainbow Dash landed flat tummy into the pond, the flat splash suggesting it might has well have been a concrete floor.
“Yehahahah! Come on girls, over here!” Pinkie Pie offered her friends to join in on the fun. She took a huge leap to pounce at the giant frogs' head. It disappeared just as she was about to burst its bubble.
Suddenly, the ground started to rumble, like something big was walking over it. Before they knew it a large shadow casted itself over the ponies. Slowly turning their attention upwards, their large pupils turned small in pure terror.
The creature towered higher than Apple Jacks barn with its huge claws buried in the mud. The animal stood on two legs, which only they counted stood as tall as five ponies. The hands of the creature was comically small compared to the rest of his body, although the ponies could do anything but laugh. The head of the reptile was the size of a window inside Twilights castle, its white teeth showing themselves pearly white. The small eyes of the creature glared yellow down at the ponies, which from their perspective looked like nothing more than shaking patches of colored tufts with trembling eyewhites.
Sharptooth took a great look at the pathetic excuse of an evening dinner below him. He wasn’t even hungry. All he could think about was that loud-mouthed wife of his blabbing on about his manners during their daily morning catch. He figured he could take a quick snack.
But then again, it wouldn’t even be a challenge, like those small colorful rodents below him would even make it 2 meters with their small legs. Running 50 km per hour top speed, Sharptooth had the ability to hunt down a group of full grown spearheads, easily - Heck! A longneck juvenile would probably make it at least 10 meters - almost. Sharptooth breathed through his nostrils. There were the smell of old meat in the air. He figured something must have died further ahead. Sharptooth snorted, causing the eyeballs of the rodents below to diminish even more than they already had. He thought he might as well take the easy way to an evening snack this time. Sharptooth felt good knowing it was exactly that kind of laziness that would make his wife angry.
The huge reptile turned around and disappeared behind the trees, its rumbling steps gradually fading in the thick silence.
Minutes passed. The ponies could as well have been rocks were they stood, dense like the latter. A bubble formed in the pound. The frog took a huge leap on top of it, resulting in a pop.
“GAAAAA!!!” All the ponies exclaimed at once. They were all shaking, all except Fluttershy, who was floating stiff around pond with her four hooves piercing the air.
“Wh...wh...wh...what was that?” Rainbow Dash asked, feeling like Fluttershy.
“Wh...wh...we need to get back to Equestria.” Twilight concluded hoarsely.
“G...g...god idea.” Rarity stammered.
After gaining their bearings the six pony friends walked back to where they came, or at least, that was what they first thought. The landscape seemed to copy itself wherever the Equestrian beings threw their eyes. Twilight felt the panic rise within her.
“Twilight. Where are we?” Fluttershy asked.
Twilight heard the question echo inside her head for the third time.
“I said: I DON’T KNOW!” She roared.
The other ponies minds were way to painted by the image of Sharptooth glaring down at them to react to Twilights outburst.
“Maybe if we stay here Celestia will find a way to get us back?” Rarity proposed.
Celestia was one of the main rulers of Equestria and the raiser of the sun. She had also been Twilights' teacher for a long while. She was the one who made her a princess by giving the lavender unicorn wings, thus making her an alicorn. She was also the main character of an expression - And by Celestia - how Twilight wished that her former mentor was here now.
“Stay here?“ Rainbow Dash answered Rarity incredulously. ”Are you out of your cloth designer mind?! What if that thing we saw back there decides that we are worth the chase after all? What if he comes back?”
“C...c....c....Comes back?!” Fluttershy stammered and shrunk to half her size.
“So we are supposed to just walk out into the blue? But where will we go?!” Apple Jack asked in panic.
“Well, i am going to fly up there and take a look!” Rainbow Dash boomed, feeling she needed to be the hope of the group.
Rainbow Dash, her name empathizing her raggedy mane, which indeed streaked in the seven six colors of the rainbow, had a big rock a couple of hooves in front of her. Looking up, she spread her wings and aimed straight for the dusky sky. Huffing and puffing she thrusted and hurled forward. The proud pegasus felt herself rise slightly into the air before her muzzle violently slammed into the rock. The other ponies stared at their friend in confusion. Rainbow Dash looked at her friends. She grabbed her neck in an embarrased manner.
“Just had an odd breeze.” She said laughed nervously before trying again, this time with faster thrusts.
The sweat poured down over the face of the pegasus. Her friends looked in disbelief at the sight of, arguably, the greatest flier in Equestria flying like a hummingbird. There was a big thump when Rainbow Dash hit the ground, sending up a dust cloud so big that it swallowed the whole group.
Coughing, Twilight attempted to rid the dust with her magic. Her horn gave out a small glow before quickly fading away. The dust eventually cleared by itself. But Twilight was not one to give up. Slightly aggravated, she tried to lift a small rock that laid ahead. Her horn sparkled with short intervals. The rock rose slightly from the ground before plummeting.
The anti climax fell upon the moment, infusing embarrassment into Twilight and temporary relief into Rainbow Dash. The alicorn princess, known among other things to have lifted an Ursa Minor and carried it back to its cave in Equestria, smiled and blushed.
“What in the world have gotten into you two?” Apple Jack, the earth pony with neither wings nor horn, asked her friends.
“I don't know? But for some reason my magic is severely weakened.” Twilight answered while shooting a worried look at the ground. Rainbow Dash was up on her hooves again.
“And that air up there is heavy. It almost felt like gravity were stronger here or something.”
Rainbow Dash usually considered herself the be most awesome pony around thanks to her genuinely brilliant flying. Rarity knew her and felt sympathy for her. “There, Rainbow Dash. It is clear to all of us that this isn’t Equestria.”
“Well that’s the understatement of the day. This looks like a no-ponies land.” Apple Jack remarked.
“Indeed.” Rarity said and nudged.
“It sure looked fun at first, but that broad mouth back there sure looked like a party pooper.” Pinkie Pie whimpered, her expression overflowing with sadness. Wether she was sincere or not was anyponys guess, but her friends had known her long enough to know that she never meant to deceive anypony.
“...Sharptooth.” A male voice corrected.
The ponies turned their attention toward the voice.
It was a talking tree. - Its thick trunk stood decisively and waved its barren branches like it was waiting for the ponies to answer. There were the sounds of twigs snapping. One of them fell to the ground. A dry leaf followed. The ponies looked up. Out from the trees crown, a reptile-like head protruded. It appeared to be eating.
“That was a Sharptooth, you’re lucky it wasn’t hungry or all of you would be goners.” The head said with his mouth full.
“And what in the world are you supposed to be?!” Rainbow Dash asked stubbornly.
“A longneck.” The head answered munching. His voice had a know-it-all edge. Pinkie Pie slithered her way in front of her rainbow friend.
"Longneck? He?" Pinkie Pie then asked the air. "Mother? What's a, Looooongneck?!"
Rainbow Dash gave out a raspy laughter.
“Wahahah... A ‘long’ neck, whatever do you mean...?” Rainbow Dashs words jammed inside her throat when the protruding head suddenly sailed out of the tree crown and stopped right in front of her, his neck twisting several times on the way.
“Eh, you know, never mind.”
Rarity wanted to save the moment from Rainbow Dashs rudeness.
“Nice to meet you longneck.” She greeted formally.
There were the sound of steps hitting the ground. Behind the tree the rest of the longnecks body slowly came into view while, although his head stayed in the same position, looking smugly at Rainbow Dash. Twilight studied the creature. The body of the longneck was only slightly higher than the ponies but when counting its neck it must have been capable of saying hi through an upper floor window - From the outside. Judging by the longnecks voice it sounded like he was the equivalent of their age. The longneck addressed Rarity with a serious look.
“That is nice of you..." The longneck hesitated.
"Ponies." Twilight filled in.
"Ponies." The longneck didn't sound impressed. "Yea... as i said, that is not how things work around here, out here it is survival of the fittest, i advice you save the niceness for your own family.”
"Pardon me, my own family?" Rarity asked confounded.
"Your own kind. Out here..." The longneck cut his speech, like he wasn't sure about if he should speak at all. Rarity could tell that he was suspicious of them "...other ponies." he ended.
Rarity had a feeling she didn't have the context to the awkward situation. She laughed nervously. “Point taken. And yet, would it be to much to ask for your name?”
The longneck appeared to gaze into the distance. “Shouldn’t you get going? You don’t want to be here when that sharptooth gets second thoughts about his decision.”
“Wh...w...when he gets second thoughts?” Fluttershy stammered.
“Yes, when! The Sharptooths may be lazy but they are impulsive, that one is surely going to come back. Believe me, you don’t want to be here when it does.”
“You can say that again.” Apple Jack agreed.
“But what about you, longneck?” Twilight asked, her eyes lowered in worry.
There was a long pause. The longnecks answer came with a finalizing edge.
“I’ll find my own way.”
As the ponies left the area the longneck watched them walk in a row along the top of a fallen trunk. The image caused a distant memory to touch the back of his head. As always, he closed his eyes and let the memory fall back into the dark parts of his mind where it belonged.
No, that time was over. The longneck were on his own now.